Journal Journal: Charging $419 Dollars To Replace A Hard Drive 1
A sad tale in which Geek Squad charged $419 to replace a harddrive, and also made the customer retrieve his own data.
Submission + - High Tech School shut down
fermion writes: In the continuing story of corporations attempting to reform education, High Tech High in Redwood City has been shut down two years into a five year project, leaving bewildered parent and students behind. I guess this shows that educating the masses is not as simple as running a corporation. The threat of layoff cannot be used to bring unmotivated kids into line. The pipe dream of stock options cannot be used in place of genuine concern for the child. And the scores on standardized test cannot be fabricated as easily as the numbers in an SEC filing. As much as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation wants to do good, they and others in the corporate world must discover that educating the populous is not a activity that will bend toward the standard corporate buzz words.
Submission + - Best practices for a lossless music archive
Sparagmei writes: I'm a big music fan, and I like listening to the music I own on various pieces of digital gear. Right now my library's at about 20,000 tracks, ripped from CDs to MP3 at 256kbps (enough that I can't tell the difference on my low-end playback gear).
However, with the MP3 judgment rippling through the world, I'm interested in perhaps moving to a different compression standard. Before I do that, I'd like to ask a question: what lossless format would you recommend for making a digital "master library", which could be (relatively) easily downsampled to a compressed format? Important factors would be true losslessness, filesize (smaller than PCM WAV would be nice), embedded metadata (id3v2-like), existence of automated ripper software, and (to a lesser extent) open-source implementation of such software. Widespread playback implementation of the lossless codec is not an issue for me; the lossless library would likely be burnt to archival DVD media and stored after being downsampling with the chosen compressor.
The reason I ask is this: I've got a 20,000-track re-ripping job ahead of me. I'd like to do that just once, lossless, so that years from now, when I decide to jump from Vorbis to "komprezzor_2039_1337" or whatever, I don't need to drag out the old plastic discs. Thanks!
However, with the MP3 judgment rippling through the world, I'm interested in perhaps moving to a different compression standard. Before I do that, I'd like to ask a question: what lossless format would you recommend for making a digital "master library", which could be (relatively) easily downsampled to a compressed format? Important factors would be true losslessness, filesize (smaller than PCM WAV would be nice), embedded metadata (id3v2-like), existence of automated ripper software, and (to a lesser extent) open-source implementation of such software. Widespread playback implementation of the lossless codec is not an issue for me; the lossless library would likely be burnt to archival DVD media and stored after being downsampling with the chosen compressor.
The reason I ask is this: I've got a 20,000-track re-ripping job ahead of me. I'd like to do that just once, lossless, so that years from now, when I decide to jump from Vorbis to "komprezzor_2039_1337" or whatever, I don't need to drag out the old plastic discs. Thanks!
Comment Re:Non-changeable battery (Score 1) 381
There are external battery packs that you can plug in to your iPod, I'm sure they would be usable for an iPhone as well
Metalinks Tries to Simplify Downloads 62
ant_tmwx writes "Metalinks collect information about files in an XML format used by programs that download. The information includes mirror lists, ways to retrieve the file on P2P networks, checksums for verifying and correcting downloads, operating system, language, and other details. Using Metalinks details the Free Software programs you can use to download them with. There are also clients on Mac and Windows. With a list of multiple ways to download a file, programs can switch to another method if one goes down. Or a file can be downloaded from multiple mirrors at once, usually making the download go much faster. Downloads can be repaired during transfer to guarantee no errors. All this makes things automatic which are usually not possible or at least difficult, and increases efficiency, availability, and reliability over regular download links. OpenOffice.org, openSUSE, and other Linux/BSD distributions use them for large downloads."
Submission + - Taking over the world
twofish writes: "UK newspaper The Observer has an interesting opinion piece in today about what it believes are Google's plans for World Domination via YouTube. An on-line version is
available here."
Software Deletes Files to Defend Against Piracy 544
teamhasnoi writes "Back in 2004, we discussed a program that deleted your home directory on entry of a pirated serial number. Now, a new developer is using the same method to protect his software, aptly named Display Eater. In the developers's own words, 'There exist several illegal cd-keys that you can use to unlock the demo program. If Display Eater detects that you are using these, it will erase something. I don't know if this is going to become Display Eater policy. If this level of piracy continues, development will stop.'"
Submission + - ICANN May Act Against RegisterFly
1sockchuck writes: "ICANN says it will terminate RegisterFly's accreditation as a domain registrar if the company can't fix its problems within 15 days. The edict comes with RegisterFly in chaos and current management blaming a departed executive for its woes. The situation is complicated by the fact that RegisterFly sold some of its domains through a reseller agreement with eNom, and others using its own accreditation."
Submission + - Yahoo! patent Web 2.0
MattSparkes writes: "Yahoo! have filed a patent that allows users to "Customise a webpage template to display data drawn from other sources." Needless to say, this covers almost every Web 2.0 sites out there, including our very own Slashdot. Yahoo! was granted the patent on the basis of work that took place in the late 1990's at the height of bubble 1.0. So could Yahoo! now ask for royalties from various Web 2.0 companies?"
Submission + - Looking for Autumn... A detective story
El Lobo writes: A Vanity Fair writer named Nick Tosches starts an epic quest to find the origin of the Windows wallpaper "Autumn". Eventually, after many days of hard work, he finds out the name of the photographer and the original location of the photo.
Submission + - Developments in the Julie Amero case
Arrogant-Bastard writes: Julie Amero has a
new attorney who is requesting a postponement of sentencing.
Steve Bass of PC World has
summarized the case.
There are at least two blogs covering this:
State v. Amero
and
Julie Amero.
The latter is run by Julie's husband, Wes Volle, and is accepting donations
to help with her defense. Please spread the word, and please contribute: this woman is facing
40 years in prison over pop-ups.
Submission + - Google Summer of Code Program Overhauled
lisah writes: "Though at first glance Google's Summer of Code (SOC) 2007 looks pretty much the same as last year's event, it turns out much of the program has been overhauled based on feedback from past participants. The biggest change is the amount of lead time given to applicants and mentoring organizations in the hopes of increasing the applicant pool and allowing everyone to be better organized once the program gets officially underway on May 28. SOC organizers say they are also aware that slow payment to last year's participants has been a bone of contention and they are taking steps to 'make sure that the problem is diminished or will not happen again.'""
No More GameCube, Wii 2.0 On the Far Horizon 153
The little purple machine that could is no longer being manufactured. Hardware revisions are in store for the Nintendo Wii eventually. These announcements aren't terribly shocking, but they're still interesting admissions from Perin Kaplan, Vice President of Marketing & Corporate Affairs for Nintendo of America. GameDaily has the interview, which also discusses Wii sales, the lull in games, new IPs, and some details on plans online. Don't worry, you won't have to buy a new Wii anytime soon. Kaplan is immediately talking about the planned Japanese version with DVD Playback capability, but does say 'Sure, absolutely' to the question of whether we'll eventually see hardware changes on the order of the DS/DS Lite.
Submission + - Junk Faxes
olddoc writes: I am having a growing problem with junk faxes. Unlike email, it costs me money when I get a fax so junk faxes really tick me off.
A while ago, I gave my number to a removal number and now I am getting more junk faxes than ever!
Does anyone know how to make them pay? What devious methods can I use to get even?
Can I sign up for a phone number that will drive up their costs when I call the toll free removal number?
What have other readers done?
Journal Journal: Google Moves into Microsoft terriotry, at last.
As expected Google announced that it is going to sell Office suite as a
subscription service.
